My journey to self improvement

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One of the benefits of the Keto diet is that once Keto / fat adapted, you’re able to begin introducing different levels of fasting, without impacting on your hunger levels. I’ve carried out a 3 Day Fast before but they say that the optimal length is 5-7 days.

Supposed benefits from lengthy fasting include improved cognitive function, through damaged cell turnover and weightloss. In this instance I’m going for the latter as I’m currently on my last week of a weight loss challenge at work and am eager to take the top prize out. The others say it’s cheating, I say they could’ve tried it themselves.

On Day 1 I weighed in 91.1kg (200lbs)

The first three days were actually quite easy. I woke up each day and brisk walked for between 60-120mins and faired ok. I even prepared/cooked all my wife’s meals.

Yesterday (the 4th day) was harder though as we went on a more difficult walk and I had to go to the supermarket to carry out the weekly shop. Trying to think ahead as to what food I’ll prepare for the week was extremely difficult.

This morning on the 5th and final day, I weighed in at 87.3kgs (193lbs).

Today has been the hardest day because I know it’s long till I can eat, so consequently, I’ve just been thinking about what I will eat!! (It will be a Broccoli, Cauliflower and Mozzarella Soup).

I am pretty happy with my results but am eager to see how much of this weight loss that I’ll be able to retain. I’ll be happy if it’s at least 1.5kgs..

Today marks six weeks since I started on this personal challenge. My initial weigh-in was 102 KG (224Lbs) and on the scales this morning, I weighed in at 93.3KG (205Lbs), giving me 8.7KGs (19Lbs) of weight loss.

I’m definitely very happy with this initial progress. The past six weeks have flown by in a breeze.

I’ve maintained my Keto diet pretty strictly but have by no means felt like I’ve struggled at any stage.

In this past week, I’ve really felt for the first time deep in ketosis and managed 4.4mmol of my Abbott Precision Xtra yesterday. I felt so good yesterday that after my ride, I didn’t need to eat until dinner. From here on in, I’m planning more fasting and am eager to try a five day fast, in two weeks time.

My weight always comes straight off my face…

My next Dexascan is planned for seven weeks time. Hopefully, I can continue with this level of progress for the next seven weeks but I’m pretty sure it will have to slow soon!

For those that don’t know, Dexa stands for Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Its main use is to measure bone density but it also has the added benefit of being able to break down very specifically, your full body composition. You lay on this small metal bed (as below) and within 3-5 minutes, the machine x-rays you and provides you with the results.

The results provide your full bone density and then a split of your body composition, right down to the body part. This shows Fat Mass, Lean Body Mass (bone, muscle, and organs), Total Mass and Fat %. It then goes further and also provides volumes of brown and white (adipose and visceral) fat. My full results are shown below with exception of bone density related results. Those were good, but I don’t consider them relevant.

This DEXA scan was carried out on the 25th of June.

My Dexascan

The results show that at the time of the scan:

I was 102kg (224lbs)

24.5% of which is fat

My short-term goal is to get back in the 80’s. 85kgs (187lbs) and or 15% body fat are my two magic numbers but based on the above results, I’ll also need to lose muscle to achieve this.

I plan to go back for another DEXA scan in September, 12 weeks after the first as I’m very keen to see how I’m tracking. In the meantime, I will continue to monitor the scales!